Spiritual Gifts Part 4

 

I’m Duane Matz and welcome to Today’s Living Word.

 

We’ve been talking about spiritual gifts spoken of in 1 Cor 12, and as we look at them let us not forget their purpose. They are given to exhibit the presence of the Holy Spirit in the congregation and are used to profit all who are present. The presence of these supernatural manifestations link individual congregations to the one true God of the Apostles.

 

I think a close examination of these “gifts” will show us that they were evidenced in the lives of the Apostles, and therefore it should not be strange that they would show up in the church.

 

These gifts are listed for us beginning in verse 8 and the first is “”the word of wisdom.” This gift was put on display when Peter and John were brought before the rulers in Jerusalem for preaching Christ risen from the dead, Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit as he spoke.

 

Notice his application of Scripture to his situation as we pick it up in Acts 4:11, "This is the 'stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.'  12 "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

 

Who but the Holy Spirit could give such wisdom to a couple of theologically untrained fishermen? This supernatural occurrence was duly noted by the rulers!

 

13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.

 

So this gift (bold application of the truth of God’s Word by ordinary people) is given to a church as a testimony that Jesus is in their midst.

 

Personally, I don’t know if I have this gift or not, but my prayer has always been that when I have the opportunity to preach or teach from the Word of God, that it would be said of me. “He has been with Jesus!”  If there be any wisdom in what I say, then glory to God, not to me. As the Reverend Dan Smith has sung, “I’ve never been to seminary, but I’ve been to Calvary. Great song by the way, you can find it on You Tube

(6) Reverend Dan Smith : I've Never Been To Seminary But I've Been To Calvary (1991) - YouTube

 

 I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word.